Seto Kaiba

Well, the existence of the MHD system in the FF-2001 thermonuclear reaction turbine engine is already part of the VF-1's compendium article. Since the Compendium requires that everything be backed up by a print source of some kind, there really isn't any way for us to cover it in the other articles. The VF-1's simply the only article where the sources went into such excruciating detail. The whole atmospheric flight mode thing can be added since it comes from Great Mechanics DX (courtesy of Sketchley), but the space flight bit that I posted is informed speculation based on the information provided, which means it's technically inadmissible. In practice, it's almost certainly the way VFs actually do get around in space (waste not, want not, you have a known quantity in the ion thruster, and a ready source of plasma, why add extra weight with a whole second set of propellant tanks), but since it isn't explicitly given in a reliable canon publication (VF-1 Master File is far out in left field because it borrows a lot from an old, long-discredited tech manual doujin that was printed around the same time DYRL came out) there's no way to include a source that explicitly says "this is how it works".

Let's be frank... it used to mean something to the fans. Examining the way in which Harmony Gold managed the franchise over the years, you have to wonder if it ever meant anything more than a quick buck to Carl Macek and Frank Agrama. And y'know what... I got threatened with a ban on Robotech.com not once but twice for saying exactly that... once for just saying it flat-out, and once for jokingly calling the movie Robotech III: the Sentinels II (Detroit 0), and several other names including "Tommy Yune's Day Off" and "Robotech III: the Search for More Money". For both, Maverick accused me of posting personal attacks against Harmony Gold staffers and threatened to ban me...

Okay, this is actually a question that seems to have an answer... one which has been around since the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series. Among the design features mentioned as having been incorporated into the FF-2001 thermonuclear reaction turbine engines used on the VF-1 is a system identified solely as "MHD", situated at the back of the engine near the exhausts. "MHD" is the accepted shorthand form of "magnetohydrodynamic(s)", which in all likelihood is identifying that part as a plasma ion thruster. In that case, the means by which variable fighters get around during space flight is remarkably similar to Star Trek's impulse engines... just without the mass-lowering subspace field. Plasma from the thermonuclear reaction engines would be vented through the engine and accelerated using a high efficiency ion thruster with thrust-vectoring nozzles to provide propulsion and basic maneuverability in space. This would also account for the higher rate of fuel consumption in the engine, to provide enough plasma to serve as propellant, and also explain why VFs so frequently employ large boosters and additional propellant tanks for extended space operations. (As a side note, this explanation also agrees in general terms with the explanation provided in the VF-1 Master File, in that the VF-1 uses a "rocket mode" for its engines in space, as plasma ion thrusters are technically rocket engines, though that book is not canon) Incidentally, this system is also how the VF-1 (and likely all other VFs) gets around underwater... MHD ion engines have already been used to propel boats using no moving parts and seawater as a propellant. See this Wikipedia article for the general details.

Not just that, but back around 2001-2002 Harmony Gold went back to Tatsunoko and acquired the merchandising rights to DYRL. Since Macross is pretty much the only part of Robotech that sells, and they've gone to so much trouble in their quest to keep Japanese Macross products out of the hands of American fans, it's highly unlikely that Harmony Gold would terminate their relationship with Tatsunoko. Of course, we could say the same solely on the basis that their future development plans for the Robotech animated series require the use of intellectual property from Genesis Climber Mospeada, which is owned by Tatsunoko.

To be honest... he hasn't done anything to deserve that guest of honor spot. Outside of his brief tenure as marketing coordinator for Harmony Gold's Robotech franchise, McKeever doesn't have any actual experience working in the anime industry. He definitely doesn't have any credentials or accolades that'd make him a person of interest for convention-goers at Anime Next. It's a pretty safe bet that the convention organizers wanted Tommy Yune, but he couldn't be arsed to go to a convention that wasn't a major stop on the tour and sent his coffee boy instead. (Just in case you were wondering, McKeever seems to fit the usual Harmony Gold staffer mold in that he's almost totally unqualified for the position he holds. In terms of his qualifications, he has a BFA in Lighting Design from Emerson College, and the most notorious titles in his production credits are Jackass, Kids Say the Darndest Things, and Billy Frankenstein. He also claims to have some experience in theater production, though he doesn't list the titles... only the venues, none of which are particularly impressive. In particular, he seems extremely proud of his work on Jackass, which as most would agree is nothing to be proud of.)

Yes, Smith & Tinker founder Jordan Weisman also co-founded FASA. How involved he was with its day-to-day operation and the events surrounding Harmony Gold v. FASA, we don't know. It does seem odd that he wouldn't have informed his licensees of the constraints, but then again the terms of the settlement in Harmony Gold v. FASA were kept confidentation, as confirmed by Catalyst Game Labs. Catalyst thought they'd found some kind of legal loophole, but apparently it didn't pan out. It's possible that Piranha Games went through a similar situation. Either way, what they did was a clear violation of Harmony Gold's exclusive right to develop and produce merchandise based on the original Macross series for sale outside of Japan, and it looks like both Catalyst and Piranha had an "Oh poo" moment when the cease and desist notices brought it to their attention.

Yes, really. Granted, it's not a direct lift of Macross's Tomahawk destroid design anymore. All the same, the redesigned Warhammer depicted in the game trailer is still a design clearly and recognizably derived from that of Tomahawk destroid. Simply changing a few minor details of someone else's copyrighted design isn't enough to make it an original work. As Harmony Gold has, under license, the exclusive right to produce merchandise based on the original Macross TV series and the Macross: Do You Remember Love? movie outside of Japan, and video games are technically merchandise, Harmony Gold had every right to send cease and desist letters to the publisher and developer demanding the removal of the offending material from the game. In this rare instance, Harmony Gold was entirely in the right and was doing what any company in that position should have done. If anyone's at fault, it's the former owners of the BattleTech and MechWarrior franchise, who reportedly failed to inform the company who purchased the franchise (Catalyst Game Labs) of the details of the settlement in Harmony Gold v. FASA and the constraints it imposed.

Granted, the voice sounds vaguely like Steve Blum... but unless Harmony Gold either goes out of business or loses its trademark on the Macross name in America, we won't be seeing any of the other Macross shows released in America. So, no... that's fake.

Nah, if I was aiming to sound like RedWolf I wouldn't be drawing on canon events in my theories and assertions. It cannot be denied that there is precedent for what I'm suggesting in other canon Macross shows. The in-universe rationale for DYRL shows that large-scale holography was already in use for cinematic purposes over a decade before "The Lynn Minmay Story" was filmed, and Macross Frontier episode 10 shows the use of post-processing to make some modern VF used for filming appear to be a completely different, much older, model. (If you have another explanation for what the "Zentradi battle scene" would've consisted of in the complete absence of Zentradi mecha, I'm all ears... (or is it "all eyes" since this is plaintext?)) This is the important bit Either way, you can't deny that the completed "Lynn Minmay Story", which was intended to be part-documentary, was using actors in DYRL appearance as though it was historically accurate... which also crops up in Macross 7: the Galaxy is Calling Me! in the form of pictures on Emilia's wall... among which is the DYRL version of Max and Milia's wedding shown at the pre-filming party... "Popular" and "Good" aren't necessarily the same thing... I could do without Nekki Sue. Which is still no more credible than the theory I proposed... they were intending to shoot a "Zentradi battle scene", and there were no Zentradi units evident anywhere in the fleet. (For that matter, full-size Zentradi seemed to be right out on City-7, since Mylene was somewhat surprised to see a pair of them at the launch party) So, coming full circle... the whole issue we're dancing around here is that no matter how we attempt to rationalize it, there are just too many contradictory instances of TV and DYRL aesthetics being used with regard to the Zentradi for us to make any definitive declaration about which one is right, or even if both are. It changes at the whim of the director... and changes often.

You've got some events backwards... the first ruling was Big West's copyright confirmation case over ownership of the IP of the original Macross series, and the second was the one in Tatsunoko's favor that had them as owners of the footage itself.... among other things.

Um... I'm also pretty sure any pretense of accuracy went out of the production right around the time the Varauta attacked the production and the film crew decided to record (and apparently use) the resulting dogfight unaltered. Now, it's been a while since I last re-watched Macross: Do You Remember Love?, but I'm pretty sure Hikaru wasn't the one singing at the Zentradi... and I'm also pretty damn sure that Hikaru's Valkyrie wasn't equipped with a speaker pod launcher and that the Zentradi weren't using modified VF-14s. Given the dialogue of the film crew back in episode 11, it seems fairly obvious that the final cut deviated significantly from the original intent of the production... (after all, everything's worse with Basara) So really, it remains entirely possible that the original intent of the production was to replace Basara's VF-19 with a VF-1 in post-production for historical accuracy's sake. Clearly they were going to be doing something with Zentradi mecha too... since the director makes mention of a "Zentradi battle scene", and there are no Regults or Glaugs evident anywhere near or on the ship.

Not necessarily... it's entirely possible that the producers originally intended to do what the producers of the "Birdhuman" movie did, and were using a modern variable fighter as a stand-in for the CG model of the period-appropriate fighter that would be inserted during post-production. Which still does nothing for obvious contradictions like the liberal use of scenes from DYRL in Macross Frontier's expository dialogue as though they were canon.

As you say, the implication of the Extra Report is that it takes place outside of the events of the Macross 7 TV series... that it is outside the normal continuity of Macross 7. There are (generally) three ways to classify material outside of the normal continuity: Expanded Universe (tenuously canon side story), Parallel World (functionally non-canon for the prime universe), and Non-Canon. In this case it doesn't really matter which, since my original point was that we can't take material from "Fleet of the Strongest Women" as being entirely reliable for the purposes of discussing what's what with the main continuity Zentradi (and/or Meltrandi) for that very reason... that it's outside the normal course of the series. An excellent proposal... admittedly not one that solves the contradictions in the depictions of Space War 1, but potentially useful for later Macross stories. Admittedly, that is the case in the TV series depiction... but like everything else it becomes somewhat awkward when we also consider all the areas where the events of DYRL and the TV series seem to occupy a "Schrodinger's continuity", where either can be canon depending on the director's preferences... like how the documentary of Space War 1 filmed aboard City-7 had Basara, Mylene, and their Vrlitwhai actor doing in DYRL style, but their Kamjin in TV style, along with Milia's TV VF-1J and TV flightsuit. Frontier didn't help matters by using Zentradi scenes unique to DYRL in their expository dialogue... Indeed... the creators of Macross II played with that idea when they were doing mechanical designs for the two canon prequel games (Macross 2036 and Macross: Eternal Love Song) by creating a whole family of designs for specific combat roles based on the stock Queadluun-Rau and Nosjadeul-Ger. Not strictly relevant to the continuity we're talking about, but relevant in that the idea is not unprecedented in Macross as a whole even without the intervention of humans (as with the Queadluun-Rea). Possibly, but all other exemplars of the DYRL commander type have all been bald, even those seemingly much younger (though of unknown age). At the time DYRL was released, Vrlitwhai would've been (according to his TV series bio) about 56 years old. Definitely not too early for male pattern baldness, if the Zentradi are even susceptible to such a thing.

Well, if we take the stated intent of Macross Chronicle at face value, then the canonicity of the Macross works being covered wasn't necessarily a factor... if it was, then their decision to include Macross II, which isn't part of the main (ongoing) continuity's canon, is truly strange. Getting pack to this thread's original topic... Oh, I'd forgotten about that... though even if we exclude Chlore's fleet in FotSW there're still Milia's red DYRL-model Queadluun-Rau in episode 11. Which was the whole point... trying to construct a rationale is impossible because there doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to their use of DYRL or TV designs aside from the personal preference of the director/writer/whoever.

What? The closest any incarnation of the Macross timeline has ever come to acknowledging the events of FotSW was a two-paragraph Extra Report included on one of the Macross Chronicle timeline sheets. It wasn't included in the airing order, and it isn't even really a part of Macross 7 Encore either. It's an extra feature tacked onto the last volume of the home video release of the series. Its omission from the broadcast run of the series and the timeline is telling enough without it essentially being a deleted scene. We can ballpark where the two actual Encore episodes take place, but all we can say about the unaired FotSW episode is that it has to be somewhere after episode 28... other than that all bets are off. The unaired episode "Fleet of the Strongest Women" is ambiguously canon at best. Realistically it should enjoy the same non-canon but acknowledged status as deleted scenes. (Were it something like Good Morning Mylene, where you could fit it in anywhere without disrupting other events it would be one thing, but FotSW's events are simply too big to handwave away like that) EDIT: Either way, it's only one small part of the whole "whose Zentradi is it anyway" situation... canon or no, there's enough conflicting material on the TV and DYRL sides to keep it entirely ambiguous.

FotSW being outside the normal continuity, the prime example is the occasional references to Milia as being Meltrandi, and the use of DYRL designs in their documentary about SW1... including showing Max and Milia's dogfight with Max in a VF-1S and Milia in a red Queadluun-Rau. It's not quite as clear cut as using one term to mean the other... there's a definite case of implying that DYRL is the more accurate depiction there... All the same, the whole matter of explaining which version of the Zentradi is "right" remains unsolvable due to the pick-and-choose nature of Kawamori's use of them.

Which sounds like retroactive arse-covering to me... but whatever, the end result is he's saying "don't think too much about it", which is sound advice. Warning! Incoming qualifying statement! Representations of the Zentradi, space fold, etc. vary in depiction in the main Macross continuity only. In the Macross II parallel world continuity, the presentation of the Zentradi, space fold travel, etc. is pretty consistent, which could easily be attributed to its use of DYRL as the sole, canon depiction of Space War 1 rather than the main continuity's mix-and-match approach. (Which is not to say that it doesn't contain some minor references to the main continuity, like an explanation for why the VF-1D doesn't show up, why the GBP-1 was first used on the VF-1J, and the UNS-remodeled bridge of Vrlitwhai's ship looking suspiciously similar to the TV series version)

All things considered, any attempt to compose a rational theory to explain away the use of designs from both the original Macross series and DYRL in newer main continuity material is always going to be a complete boondoggle so long as Kawamori doesn't want to be tied down to one version or the other. There's simply no rhyme or reason to his use of the designs from either series, since he's played mix and match with both on more than one occasion. Macross Frontier's "Missing Birthday" and "Fastest Delivery" weren't the most blatant contradiction, just the most recent one... Macross 7's documentary episode had a DYRL Vrlitwhai and a TV series Quamzin. There was also the use of the term "Meltran" in Macross 7 to describe Milia, whereas Macross Frontier has Klan Klan identifying herself as Zentradi instead. Macross 7 also supplied a rationale to explain why Exsedol switched from his TV series look to the DYRL redesign, seemingly implying that his TV appearance was the original one, but no rationale exists for the other occurrences of DYRL designs. EDIT: RedWolf raised another interesting contradiction... in FotSW, Chlore and her fleet are DYRL designs, but they act as though they were in a TV series-style relationship with the Zentradi forces... as their allies, rather than their rivals. Now that Frontier is playing silly frakkers and trotting out a heavier emphasis on DYRL, who knows what's what as far as the Zentradi are concerned? By all accounts they're using the DYRL designs just because they look cooler half the time.

Unfortunately, from what others have told me in their attempts to share the increasingly imbecilic goings-on of the usual crowd of Robotech.com trolls and wankers, that seems to be the case. Rhade and ShadowLogan could hold their own in intelligent discourse, if only they could be persuaded to drop their asinine, long-discredited pet theories and their insane defense of the indefensible. Other than that, the knowledgeable folks have pretty much been banned for "heresy". Quoted for truth, justice, and epic quantities of win. Which could easily be taken as a fair definition of the remaining fanbase... In the interest of fairness, this is probably the most active Robotech-related topic on any forum devoted to either Robotech or Macross, and it's almost exclusively facepalming and mockery.

Your guess is as good as mine... No, I don't think Macross Chronicle has covered it. The safest assumption is that the wings are being retracted back into the fuselage, and are likely stored in the layer between the passenger compartment and cargo compartment. You might want to consider adding context when you ask a question like this... earlier in the episode when Sheryl is shot down while operating Michael Blanc's VF-25G, she's wearing a spacesuit. If you meant later, when they're talking in the hangar... it's almost certainly a pressurized environment (unlike the flight deck itself). Insofar as Brera's VF-27, that's already been explained on the Compendium and in Chronicle, the brainwave control system links the cyborg pilot's brain directly to the controls. Presumably Brera's ability to remotely operate his VF-27 is a function derived from the same zero-time fold communications that Grace is presumably using to remotely operate the different bodies she uses in the series.

Excalibur. "Blazer Valkyrie" is an unofficial nickname for it... though, to be precise, the term "Valkyrie" passed into common usage as a common name for Variable Fighters. Any VF can be referred to as a "Valkyrie" (in much the same way that "Kleenex" is now synonymous with "tissue"), though the only variable fighters actually named "Valkyrie" are the original VF-1 Valkyrie, and the Macross II continuity's VF-1R Valkyrie Kai and VF-2SS Valkyrie II.

Always good... by all means, share your insights with us. Unsurprisingly, a fairly common occurrence... rather a lot of western Macross fans initially discovered anime and Macross through Robotech, though it's becoming a less and less common phenomenon among the younger anime enthusiasts who were introduced to their hobby by newer shows, and sidestepped the Robotech phase by seeking out the readily-available fansubs of all the shows Harmony Gold's been blocking. Cue the disillusioned "WTF" directed at Shadow Chronicles in 3... 2... 1... Aaaaaaaaaand... there we have it. Joking aside, this is an all-too-common phenomenon among what remains of the Robotech fanbase. Now that the Harmony Gold "creative team" has made it appallingly obvious that they will never produce anything of quality, fans of Robotech find themselves in a difficult position. The most rational fans simply accept that Robotech was just doomed to fail, and move on to other shows that actually have potential. They might retain a lingering affection for the show that introduced them to anime, or they might just walk off shaking their heads and wondering what the hell they were thinking. The more devoted Robotech fans, who've stuck with the franchise through two and a half decades worth of disappointment, will often work themselves up into a frenzy of denial over the current state of affairs. They'll spend hours or days trying to justify how Shadow Chronicles really isn't as bad as everyone says it is, and all the while it's painfully obvious that they don't actually believe the things they're saying and are just trying to retroactively justify 20+ years of wasted time to themselves. The most devoted Robotech fans, who are generally thick enough to actually believe Harmony Gold's hype, have been clinging to the franchise for so long that they've lost all contact with reality and actually believe that Robotech is a strong property and that Shadow Chronicles is a misunderstood gem. Oddly enough, this most devoted group of fans is also usually the group that knows the least about Robotech, frequently tripping up on simple stuff like what character belongs to what saga and the fact that not every minor one-shot character has a huge, elaborate backstory. This last group is Robotech's core constituency... the strange, mutant creatures whose completely alien concepts of "fun" and "entertainment" leave you wondering if they unwind by building databases in Microsoft Access. More often than not, they give their unwilling audience cause to wonder whether they're masochists, stupid, or both. In practice, nostalgia is about the only merit Robotech has ever had. Even as early as 1986, Harmony Gold was already gleefully proving that they hadn't a clue how to write original material of their own. Eventually, the nostalgia of the people will run out, and Robotech will finally die... albeit a far less dignified death than the one it should have had back in 1987.

As far as the whole "continuing Shadow Chronicles thing goes, they did at least have that dreadful draft which was floating around the internet. McKeever's loud protests that "on hiatus" doesn't mean they're not working on it aside, the remarks made by Richard Epcar at various conventions are most telling. He was very open about the fact that when he was contracted to lend his voice talents to a trilogy of new Robotech, of which Shadow Chronicles was to be the first installment. He also went on record to say that after he was informed that the project was on hold with a "don't call us, we'll call you" with regard to recording his lines, he didn't hear from them again. It definitely looks like nothing will ever get done on Shadow Rising, since Tommy is waiting for Warner to unfuck the franchise's reputation, and Warner is twiddling its thumbs waiting for the writers to produce something coherent as far as a draft. Unsurprising to say the least... no doubt Harmony Gold intends to play it safe with the live action movie. If it's a hit, they won't bother faffing about with Shadow Rising, and will do a new animated series based on it (ala Transformers Animated) while the property is hot. If it flops or gets canceled, they'll fall back on squeezing the die-hard fanbase's blue balls for more cash from the relative safety of their Shadow Rising safety net. Warner would have to be blind not to know that Macross is their best bet for a successful Robotech movie, yet they're going ahead with the idea of a reimagining to sidestep the litigious nightmare the original represents... and thus the end result will probably end up bearing no resemblance to the classic anime to which Harmony Gold has been desperately clinging these past twenty-five odd years. Oh, so Kevin McKeever's falling back on his usual trend of revisionist history and bullshit... charming. Either way, it comes right back to his long-time stance of "we'll do a new series if and only if we can get a network to give us an episode commitment". It sounds like he's trying to engage in some Carl Macek-esque buck-passing, to lay most of the blame for having no new properties out there on the doorstep of the big television networks, for whom the Robotech franchise is such a pathetic small-time outfit that it's barely worth their notice. Incidentally, it also appears that SPACE has taken Robotech out of the lineup entirely... it's not listed anywhere on their broadcast schedule, and the series page has no airdate listed under "next episode". I guess it was inevitable, since the series was put in a timeslot (Saturday @ 7:00am) that made it abundantly clear that the network probably thought it was a real channel-changer campfest and almost guaranteed nobody would watch.

Well, like I said... if it was an acrimonious parting they probably would've kept it quiet as a courtesy thing, and if it wasn't and they'd just had other things to do at the time there likely was never a reason for their parting of ways. Speculation is probably all we'll ever have on this note, since unless something goes seriously pear-shaped with a production, they don't usually talk about this sort of thing.

Episode 27 was originally going to be the finale under Big West's original plan, but after the first three episodes aired and became a runaway hit, they extended the show's run (only once) to 36 episodes.